Hey everyone, it's Hibba, and this is Kernan Cultures.

While we're working on our summer season, we're going to be dropping some bonus episodes into your feed every now and again over the next few months.

So that's what today is all about, a special conversation featuring producer Alex A-Tac, whom you've heard telling you all these

stories, but you probably don't know much about him. So this is his backstory like you've

never heard it before. It comes to us from our friends at the DiMiri podcast, which is a show

hosted by Tori and Miri, where he has these deep, honest conversations with what he calls unique individuals.

Alex is a unique individual. We love the show, so we thought we'd play the interview, slightly edited

here. Okay, here it is. Welcome to the episode 15 of the Miri podcast. I'm your host, Tarakal Miri.

Great. Now, this week's guest is Alex Aetak,

spelled with one T. Alex is a photographer and a radio producer based in the UK. He's also a

managing producer for the podcast network, Cunning Cultures, which has a variety of amazing podcast shows,

both in English and Arabic.

Alex is one open book, with lots of experiences and amazing observations.

His insights in the world of storytelling are fascinating.

He has had many busy years working on assignments for clients such as Monaco, the New York Times, NPR, and The Guardian.

In this Tedriza chat, Alex and I really go deep into podcasting and why it's so different to any

other storytelling form. We also discuss Alex's memories of growing up in Dubai, photojournalism's right of passage, telling

stories from and about the Middle East, the UK's colonial past, Alex's creative process,

the history of tattooing, and plenty more. Let's do it.

How are you? I'm good, yeah.

No, I'm feeling pretty good, yeah.

I'm feeling like, you know, when you kind of finish a year and the start of 2020, I feel like the start, like, in that 2019, there was a lot of stuff happening in my life and moving around and like various projects and all of that. And it was it was super nice to just put that to bed at the end of 2019. And I do feel like I'm starting a new like I've just moved to Brighton and I feel like I'm starting a new like kind of chapter in my life. We've just moved into a new flat. Um, so I'm feeling yeah, pretty good broadly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Shall we start at the basic intro? Yeah. Yeah. Who are you?

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